LA LA - Belle Chasse, WhtMale 16-17, UP88342, hanged, suicide note, Feb'75

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Mismatched clothes and socks, carrying a jar and a bedsheet with no shoes....I would think if he hitchiked or took a bus, he would have definitely stood out.
I hope this wasn't a "staged" suicide.
 
Sweetluv said:
Do we know if the note or a copy exist?
That could possibly be compared to a missing persons handwriting if a love one comes forward..
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It appears that at least one page of the note in his handwriting still exists.

There is a photo of what is believed to be his handwriting in the excellent summary here, much of which was compiled using information from WS:
Summary

(I apologize I'm not able to post the image directly, my phone and I are both ancient!)
 
Ciriii57 said:
Who thinks this was in fact Charles Wallace Jr? and who thinks it was Bayard Cousins?
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I definitely don't think it was Bayard Cousins. Reasons: height, eye color, and based on the limited photo we have of him, I don't think he looks like BCJD. BCJD looks like an individual, identifiable person in his sketch (unlike so many).

Charles Wallace was ruled out by his mother, but suspicions remain due to the way the newspaper article was written (IMO). She spent a long time with the body and seemingly couldn't decide one way or the other, finally settling on 'no'. The article kinda teases 'maybe yes, maybe no'. He's an interesting case, though.

We don't have an image of CW to compare, or any records for either him or BCJD.

In fact, I just took a quick twirl through Classmates.com to see if I could turn anything up. He doesn't appear in a search by name (edited to add: in Memphis schools), which doesn't mean he's not in a yearbook there.

However, Memphis has 500+ schools (colleges included) listed, and we have no idea which he attended, or when (or, come to think of it, if he even attended a school in Memphis). So theoretically we could slug through this (slowly), but no guarantee of any results. If there's a better resource for this kind of info, I'd love to hear about it!
 
I am also leaning to Charles Wallace. I think the sketch aligns very well with him and the circumstances of his life just prior to disappearing also make me lean that way.

The fact that his mother ummed and ahhhed so much always stood out a bit because I don't think there was major physical trauma on the body? I wondered if she decided to respect his wishes to remain unidentified, or in her pain she couldn't bring herself to admit he had committed suicide
am I right in thinking that there was a positve match with dental records though?
 
Ciriii57 said:
Who thinks this was in fact Charles Wallace Jr? and who thinks it was Bayard Cousins?
I'm torn.
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I think he is Charles. The matching scar in his mouth is too big a coincidence for me.

You can't go by what a potential mother says. They might need closure and say he's their son. They might need hope and say he isn't. It's terrible to contemplate.
 
Thanks, Ivan, I'd forgotten about that pic!

I don't see it though - and BCJD was missing a scar on his leg that CW had, according to his mother.

I dunno - I'm 70/30 on CW not being BCJD. It has do with 'vibey' things rather than 'actual facts', so with a lot of salt: his suicide note doesn't sound like a person who is a) a drug addict or b) a member of Future Farmers of America; in fact, regardless of the agricultural nature of FFA , CW was 'President' of his local chapter, which implies a degree of social confidence and acceptance BCJD didn't seem to have.
 
I honestly can't decide! Logic says he is more than likely Charlie because that's a lot of coincidence for one case, and I believe a poster upthread is right about the dental records being a match, and the sketch does bear enough of a resemblance to Charlie.

That said, if there were no coincidences, no scars, no dental records which seem pretty conclusive to me, then I would have said Bayard all day long.
 
cenazoic said:
his suicide note doesn't sound like a person who is a) a drug addict or b) a member of Future Farmers of America; in fact, regardless of the agricultural nature of FFA , CW was 'President' of his local chapter, which implies a degree of social confidence and acceptance BCJD didn't seem to have.
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Really great analysis. In fact you've made me change my mind! I'm now not sure it was either of these people haha
This poor guy was so torn up inside. He felt so out of place and I get the impression he was trying to control some urges he was having to cause others harm. He talks about not making social connections and not wanting to explode in violence or in an institution. Is it possible he was having murderous thoughts and, in order to save others, murdered himself? Just an idea.
 
No worries, I just realized I referred to “Ivan” in re the CW comparison pic above, when I meant @Romulus . No idea what wire got crossed there. Maybe reading too many Cold War-era newspapers. :)
 
ChatteringBirds said:
I think he is Charles. The matching scar in his mouth is too big a coincidence for me.

You can't go by what a potential mother says. They might need closure and say he's their son. They might need hope and say he isn't. It's terrible to contemplate.
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A while back I did a search for Charles’ father and found what I believe to be his obituary. There was an old photo of him in a military uniform and it looked just like the sketch of our UID, imo. I looked to see if his son Charles had a tombstone because the graveyard had many family members, but there wasn’t one for Charles Jr.

I don’t have the link handy, but I can do a search again and post the image if required (and allowed). If you do a search for his mother’s and father’s names and their hometown you should find it. I imagine someone here in the thread has already posted it at some point.

The dental records and the neighbours and other people recognizing the similarity between the sketch and Charles is very strong proof, imo.

I think the mom possibly knew it was her son. Or maybe it was denial. It’s an extremely difficult thing to accept that someone you love has taken their life. Maybe she wanted to spare her husband added grief. Maybe the pain of a missing son was less than the pain of a deceased son who had taken his life.

I think it’s telling that she she spoke to a reporter about her missing son but didn’t apparently provide the media with a photo of her son. I’d think she would have taken that opportunity to get media attention for her missing son.
 
Rolypolyoly said:
I honestly can't decide! Logic says he is more than likely Charlie because that's a lot of coincidence for one case, and I believe a poster upthread is right about the dental records being a match, and the sketch does bear enough of a resemblance to Charlie.

That said, if there were no coincidences, no scars, no dental records which seem pretty conclusive to me, then I would have said Bayard all day long.
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Is there a photo of Charlie?
 
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